Monday, September 21, 2009

No HDTV for Local12...Yet

Well, it was to happen today...but that's not to be.

Local12 VP/GM Les Vann says they've been rehearsing for the last week, but have decided to postpone the launch of HD newscasts. (Maybe they want to be sure they get it right.) It now looks like next week will be the big launch.

Now, we know that we were the first to report it would be this week, last week. As such, we take responsibility for what we wrote.

Our source at the station told us last Wednesday that it would go this weekend. We wrote our post of that day, to report what we knew. We stand by what we wrote. Simple.

Normally, yours truly doesn't feel the need to defend what we wrote. But in this case, we are. Whatever reason WKRC found to delay the HD launch, and we don't necessarily believe it was us, it had to be significant...

3 comments:

kybengalfan said...

The longer they wait, the more viewers they will lose. All things are pretty much the same down here in Louisville as far as news. but when WAVE started broadcasting theirs in HD, I started watching. When I do watch local news, they are the one I watch now.

Anonymous said...

There was never an *official* launch date for 09/21. Getting a full HD broadcast on the air is no simple feat, especially in this economy. Other stations have been moderately HD in this market, but not fully HD. Launching in full HD (field, studio, graphics, most commercials, etc) and at the same time launching a new image (and website) was painstakingly labored upon for months and months and months.

Hopefully everyone loves the new changes that have been implemented. This type of "labor of love" is something that the other stations in Cincinnati simply can't supply to their viewers.

J. Moses said...

This is true Anon 2:04. I will say, I do like the new imaging/graphics/etc. done by WKRC. What I was told (or at least, what I think I heard from my inside source - for all I know what they said was a week from this Sunday. Admittedly, where I was when I was told this, was a pretty loud Bengals Nation taping done by Local 12) was they had planned the previous Sunday to be the date, instead of last night. But, it makes sense. If you're going to launch in full HD, as you pointed out, you better make sure you got your stuff together and ready when you go to do it. There's no second chances.

And in Cincinnati, no doubt, not everyone has the full resources (I.E. the money) to do a full HD launch, and not just bits and pieces at a time. Usually, a station will launch one piece of the puzzle (studio and graphics), then another (let's say, field broadcasts), and then another (something else from your list) until they have it all together. I have to admit, LOCAL 12 did impress me with their launch. More on that shortly.